The Rule of Love and 'Last'
by Kei Jones
Summary: Claire is curious about love and wants to know what is that 'one' thing that couples do with one another that they do with anyone else. None of the other imprints or Quil is willing to answer that question. But Leah has no problems. T for language.


The Rule of Love and 'Last'

****

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight characters nor did I invent the rule of 'last' but I support the rule wholeheartedly! I also support Jacob and Leah. BLACKWATER RULES! I do NOT, however, support Katniss and Peeta. That was just some Breaking Dawn bullshit ALL OVER again! Here I invested this time, energy and love for the tall, gorgeous and hunky grey-eyed Gale and what happens? The manipulating LIAR wins again.

* * *

Love is defined as a noun: (1) a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties, (2) attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3) affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests. It's also a warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion.

Claire sits looking at the words in the dictionary, a small frown upon her face and brow furrowed in concentration. It's not that _love_ is foreign or unknown to Claire because she feels loved by everyone within her family and extended circle of friends. Her parents, sibling, uncle, aunts, cousins and even Quil loved her but at 9-years old Claire wanted to know what 'being _in_ love' was like. How would she be able to recognize it?

Closing the dictionary and replacing it back on the shelf, Claire walks into the kitchen to find her Aunt Emily baking muffins while her daughter, Erin, sits busily chattering away in baby gibberish. Plenty of Uncle Sam's friends _claimed_ to _love_ Emily's muffins but after so many years Claire finds herself growing bored of them.

"Want to help me bake muffins, Claire?" Emily asks as she looks over her shoulder to find her niece looking in at her.

"No, thank you." Claire answers quickly shaking her head. Walking up to the fridge, she pulls open the door and grabs a small juice box. Sitting down at the table, Claire pokes the straw through the small plastic hole and looks over at Erin, giggling excitedly as she drinks her juice out of her bottle and spits into her tray to only swirl it around.

Claire's nose crinkles as she watches Erin smack her hand into the wet mess, splashing it all over and laughing like a mad-baby. Looking up Claire hears the backdoor open and watches as her Uncle Sam walks into the kitchen. Claire's eyes focuses on her uncle as he walks in and covers her aunt's face in multiple kisses before turning to Erin and covering her round, red face in the same multiple kisses before giving Claire one sweet kiss on the top of her forehead.

"Erin, you're making a mess." Sam scolds with a small frown, his voice betraying the anger or frustration being expressed on his face. Lips locked onto her straw, Claire watches intently as Uncle Sam grabs a rag and begins to clean Erin up and removes her tray.

_Love out of kinship_.

Claire reasons as Erin proceeds to gnaw on her bib while gurgling and screaming.

"Aunt Emily, Uncle Sam how do you know when you're in love?" Claire asks out loud as Sam chuckles at Erin's antics. The question seems to catch the two off guard as they both stop what they are doing, Sam playing with Erin and Emily spooning dough into her pan, to look at Claire.

"Why do you ask?" Emily asks sweetly with a nervous smile across her face. Truthfully, Claire doesn't know the answer and she simply shrugs her shoulders in response.

"Just wondering is all." Claire answers back before returning back to her juice box.

"Do you _think_ you're in _love_ with someone?" Sam asks watching Claire intently.

"Nope." Claire answers simply popping the 'p' before she frowns and shakes her empty juice box. Hopping down off the chair, she throws the empty juice box away and returns to the fridge and pulls out another two before returning to her seat.

In the meantime, Sam and Emily exchange quick glances both with questions in their eyes but neither able to provide an answer. Questions have loomed over how Quil and Claire's situation would change as Claire became older but it seems kind of sudden now that Claire is asking about love.

"So…how do you know?" Claire asks after a couple of minutes of silence.

"Well…you'll know because that _one_ person will be all that you'll see." Emily says sweetly getting a far off gaze as she looks at Sam.

"Yea, but you see me and Erin, right?" Claire asks with a frown. "And you see Paul and Jared and Embry and Quil," Claire begins rattling off with a small frown – the explanation isn't enough for her.

"Well…that's _different_," Sam cuts in quickly with a smile. "When you're _in love_ there's just that _one_ person that holds your heart."

"How does someone _hold_ your heart?" Claire asks her frown deepening, an eyebrow raising as does her voice with the mounting confusion.

"Well they don't _physically_ hold your heart," Emily says with a small frown, her own brow furrowing as she thinks about how to explain 'love' to Claire. "Love is special, it's one of a kind and it varies for everyone."

"You'll do _anything_ for that person and you'll _love everything_ about them." Sam adds smiling up at Emily as she smiles back.

"And _only_ that one person?" Claire asks her head tilting to the side as Sam and Emily both nod their heads. "Like what?" Sam and Emily both immediately tense up at the question, Emily begins to blush and Sam sucks his lips in and frowns. "What will I do with that one person?" Claire asks again.

"Uh…well…you'll, you'll love them." Emily answers softly, her face a beet red color.

"_How_?" Claire demands her eyes focusing in on both her uncle and aunt _willing_ them to answer her.

"Just in a very _special_ way." Sam states simply with a nod.

"So…love is seeing only _one_ person, doing anything for them, you'll love _everything_ about them and will do _one_ special thing…with them?" Claire asks going over the points that have been presented to her. Sam and Emily both nod their heads quickly before Sam suddenly excuses himself giving the excuse about checking up on Collin and Brady and Emily goes to change Erin's diaper.

Claire lets out a frustrated sigh as she turns her attention back to her juice box, her feet kicking intermittently as she mulls over the information she's received. To her it just doesn't make any sense. She does love her uncle and aunt _but_ she doesn't love her aunt's muffins and she didn't like how bossy her uncle could be.

* * *

Finding out about love is, apparently, a tough question for adults to answer Claire reasons. It's been days since she asked Sam and Emily the question followed by Jared and Kim then Rachel and Paul and finally Quil. All had given similar answers but when posed with the _one_ thing that they do with each other that no one else does they all became anxious, shifty eyed and suddenly had _very important_ things to do. Even Quil seemed to pale when Claire asked the question and began demanding to know _who_ Claire was in love with.

"Why so down kid-o?" Leah asks walking into Sue's living room and flopping down on the couch. Claire looks up with a small smile as Leah sits down next to her and gives her a quick wink. It was not out of the ordinary for Claire to be sent to her Great-Aunt Sue's for sitting when everyone else was busy; at least Leah was there and she always made Claire laugh.

"I've been trying to find out how I'll know when I'm in love." Claire states and watches Leah closely to gauge her reaction. All the other adults have frozen when posed with the question and then asked if she felt like she was falling in love. A simple and understandable question but it was the suspicious looks that she was given that was sometimes mixed in with worry or disgust.

"That's a tough one." Leah says stretching out her limbs. "Has someone been confessing their _love_ for _you_?" Leah asks her voice in a low whisper. The conspiratorial tone in her voice has Claire blushing as she quickly shakes her head and giggles.

"No but I've just been wondering about it is all." Claire explains as Leah gives a soft 'oh'.

"It's everywhere; TV, movies, storybooks, everyday life." Leah says nodding her head and Claire smiles appreciatively as Leah seems to understand her.

_Leah always seems to understand me_.

"What you learn?" Leah asks propping her feet up on the table and begins channel surfing.

"Love is about seeing only _one_ person." Claire begins and Leah scoffs. "It's about being willing to do _anything_ for that person, loving everything about them," Claire begins ticking off all the explanations she's received. "It's about never having to say 'sorry', it's always agreeing, never fighting, kisses and hugs, never hurting that person," Claire begins to slow down as Leah looks at her as if she's crazy. "And…doing something _special_ with that person." Claire finishes up suddenly feeling very silly.

"Let me guess…Emily, Sam, Rachel, Paul, Kim and Jared told you all of this, didn't they?" Leah asks with a small frown on her face. Claire only nods her head as Leah snorts and throws out a low 'figures'.

"Well…what do you say Leah?" Claire asks.

"I say they're all stupid fucks." Leah grumbles and Claire can't help but giggle at the response back.

"No, Leah, about love." Claire clarifies still laughing.

"Oh…well, _love_ varies from person to person." Leah starts off with a frown. "There's love that you have with your family," Claire nods her head as she already grasps this but decides not to interrupt Leah. "You love your family because of the ties that hold you all together. Then there's your friends, you can love your friends but it's different then the love for your family it's based upon your experiences together. You pick your friends but God gives you your family." Leah says with a chuckle and Claire thinks it over.

It's not an immediate answer to her question but she's seeing the varying the degrees of love. She loves her family and her friends; sometimes her friends have done something that have 'pissed her off', as Leah puts it and she's stopped talking to them but she gets over it with her family. Is it the 'ties' that Leah's talking about?

"Over time the love you feel towards your friends will change." Leah says sitting up with a sigh. "You'll start to _notice_ different things about different people."

"Not just _one_ person?" Claire asks with a frown.

"Not at first but eventually you'll narrow it down to one." Leah says shaking her head.

"Who was it? For you?" Claire asks sitting up and turning around to face Leah. Leah's brow furrows as Claire looks up at her excitedly, her eyes shining brightly with the information she's about to receive.

Leah frowns as she debates whether or not to get into _that_ part of her life but love was love.

"Sam." Leah simply answers and Claire's eyes slowly widen as she looks on in surprise.

"_Uncle_ Sam as in Aunt Emily's _husband_?" Claire asks in a low whispers.

"Same one." Leah says with a low growl.

"But…did, did he love you?" Claire asks.

"Yep," Leah answers with a sigh popping 'p'. "And then he stopped – just like that." Leah says snapping her fingers for emphasis.

"Was he _in love _with you?" Claire asks and Leah goes in between shrugging her shoulders and nodding her head.

"Did for a while…long enough to ask me to marry him." Leah says rolling her eyes.

"Did you agree?" Claire asks and gasps in surprise as Leah nods her head. "But…he _couldn't_ have loved you because you _don't_ hurt the one you love." Claire states with a hard frown. The information has painted her uncle in a whole new light she's not seen in him.

"Oh, you _always_ hurt the ones you love." Leah says with a scoff. "Like your friends, sometimes your family,"

"Did Aunt Emily hurt you too?" Claire asks and Leah nods her head.

"Everything that they said 'works' for them." Leah says quickly getting off the topic of the SamxLeahxEmily love triangle; that's a matter that has been buried for a long time now and she's really not interested in looking back on that moment in her life. "But you'll see other people; you just won't do _anything_ for that person because blind obedience isn't love. The person you love will know you inside and out and sometimes you'll both say something to each other that will be hurtful and you know why?" Leah asks as Claire shakes her head. "Because that person will know you the best, better than your own family, and that will make _him_ dangerous." Leah states her eyes narrowing and her muscles tightening.

"But…they'll apologize for it because being _in love_ does mean having to apologize. If you love each other, you'll fight and argue because you don't want to just blindly do whatever they want and _lose_ yourself, do you?" Leah asks and Claire quickly shakes her head. "Of course not, you still want to be your own person with thoughts, ideas and goals."

"But…_how_ will I know?" Claire asks shaking her head and steers the conversation back to the question that prompted this inquiry. "What's the _one_ thing that I'll do with him that I won't do with anyone else?" Leah raises an eyebrow as she studies Claire for a few moments.

"That's easy," Leah says with a mischievous smirk. "The _one_ thing he'll do for you and you for him is 'give your last'." Leah says with a 'duh' tone to her voice.

"Give – give my last? Last what?" Claire asks with a frown, her brow furrows and frustration written all over her face.

"I'll show you in about an hour." Leah says with a wink as she turns back to watching TV. With a sigh Claire turns and resigns herself to watching TV with Leah as well. She doesn't understand what her explanation meant but Leah has always been true to her word and so Claire…well, she'll wait.

It isn't long before Seth shows up walking into the house, giving each girl a greeting before heading upstairs to his room. Leah and Claire continue watching TV as Seth comes back downstairs, showered and still wet from his shower.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Seth asks nodding his head at Leah as he heads into the kitchen.

"Watching TV with Claire." Leah throws back before looking down at Claire and giving her a small smile. With a nod of her head, Leah gets up and heads into the kitchen with an intrigued Claire right behind her. The two females stand in the kitchen watching as Seth rummages through the cabinets and pulls out a huge bag of Tortilla chips.

"Ain't you got a TV of your own to watch?" Seth asks he opens the fridge and pulls out a huge bag of cheese and Tupperware of chopped up chicken.

"What a girl can't hang out with her family every once in a while?" Leah asks with a small pout. Claire giggles as she watches the two siblings interact with one another; Leah occasionally shoving her brother and Seth simply rolling his eyes and taking it until the two are suddenly wrestling in the middle of the kitchen floor. The microwave bings and the two Clearwaters freeze, glaring at each other and finding themselves both in a stalemate.

"Draw?" Seth grumbles and Leah concedes with a smile by releasing her brother from her headlock and Seth carefully places his sister back on her feet. Claire and Leah look on as Seth pulls out his chicken & cheese nachos out the microwave and sits down at the kitchen table. "Want some?" Seth asks as Leah sits down next to him with a small smile on her face. Leah shakes her head and Seth frowns offering her some again. "You sure you don't want none?" Seth asks again.

"I'm good." Leah says sweetly and the three begin to talk as Seth eats. Claire laughs at Seth and Leah teasing one another but her mind wanders back to what Leah had mentioned earlier about giving someone your 'last'; she didn't understand what it meant. "So Seth can you gonna eat that last chip?" Leah asks suddenly, her eyes focused on the last chip on Seth's plate. Claire looks down and notices there's only one last chip left with a lotta cheese on it on Seth's plate.

Seth lets out a low and frustrated growl as he glares darkly at his sister.

"I _thought_ you were 'good'." Seth states as his fists clench tightly and Leah's gaze remains completely focused on the chip.

"I _was_ at the time but _now_ I want that chip." Leah says looking up and giving Seth a sweet smile. Claire looks between the two siblings and watches as Seth smirks darkly at Leah and pops the last chip into his mouth before dusting off his hands and cleaning up his mess. "You greedy bastard." Leah mumbles with a small pout but then turns and looks down at Claire with a smug look.

The two girls retreat back to the living room and take up their previous spots on the couch, flipping through channels and occasionally singing along with the commercials or quoting some line or other they have memorized from a movie. The pair doesn't wait long before Jacob walks in through the back door with a huge grin on his face. Claire and Leah both throw out a 'hello' as he sits down in between the two of them and wraps them both up into a tight hug. Claire giggles as she always loves Jacob's hug because he is so big, warm and funny.

"Kiss for you," Jacob says kissing the top of Claire's head with a loud smack. "And one for you." Jacob says to Leah his voice growing husky and gives Leah a kiss on her lips. Claire finds herself always blushing whenever Leah and Jacob kissed in front of her, she doesn't know why but there's just always something so 'intimate' and 'special' about their kissing. Claire looks up as Leah kisses Jacob's lips a few more time and he sighs into them before pulling back and turning his attention back to Claire.

Maybe _this_ is another reason why Claire loves being around Jacob and Leah, they both always have time to pay her attention _even_ when the other is around. The other adults only seemed to notice each other and no one else – which is rude.

"You're _here_ too?" Seth grumbles as he sits down in the recliner frowning at Jacob.

"Yea, I'm _here_ too." Jacob throws back with a big smile on his face. "Why? You jealous?" Jacob taunts as he snuggles down into the couch and hugs Leah and Claire possessively.

"Jealous? Of _what_?" Seth asks leaning the recliner back and letting out a yawn.

"Of _me_ sitting here in between these two _gorgeous_ ladies." Jacob adds with a smug grin on his face.

"Yea, I'm _real_ jealous of you sitting in between my sister and my 3rd cousin." Seth says with a roll of his eyes.

"Jake, I'm hungry." Leah throws out getting Jacob's full attention. With a sigh Jacob gets up followed by Leah and Claire is happy to see that she's being invited to tag along. Seth opts to stay behind but it becomes obvious why as the moment the couch is vacated he lays across it with a game controller in his hand.

* * *

Claire sits in the back of Jacob's jeep with a huge smile on her face as Jacob listens intently to Claire talk about her day at school. Leah asks a few questions or makes a few comments but Claire can't help but feel special whenever she's around them. Sure Quil makes her feel like a princess but there's just something _extra_ special about the attention that Jacob and Leah give to her. They don't treat her like a little girl like the other adults do or cater to her either like Quil; they treated her like a real person with thoughts, feelings and ideas of her own. Eventually the three wind up outside a burger joint in Forks. Walking in they stand in line until it's their turn at the counter.

"Go ahead and order whatever you girls want." Jacob says waving Leah and Claire ahead of him.

"I'll have two double cheeseburgers and a large iced tea, please." Leah says sweetly before stepping aside to let Claire have her turn.

"Whoa, what about your fries?" Jacob says walking up and giving Leah a hard look.

"I don't want any French fries." Leah says with a sigh and a small pout.

"You _always_ want fries." Jacob answers. "Give her a large fry with that order." Jacob tells the cashier.

"No, I don't _want_ any fries, Jake. If _I_ wanted fries I would've asked for them." Leah states matter-of-factly with her arms crossed.

"I _know_ you and you're going to want fries with that." Jacob throws out with an arrogant chuckle.

"Well not today, I don't." Leah throws back.

"Get the damn fries, Lee." Jacob orders fixing Leah with a hard glare.

"No. Claire just go ahead and order what you want." Leah says pushing Claire forward.

"You're not getting any of my damn fries." Jacob hisses.

"Fine, keep your goddamn French fries." Leah growls out and the two stand, narrowing their eyes at each other.

"I'll have a cheeseburger kid's meal, please." Claire says sweetly with a huge smile on her face taking the moment of silence to get her order in. "Oh…and I can have a car as my toy please? I've already got all the dolls." The cashier gives her a big smile and a short nod before turning her attention back up to the huge glaring Native standing before her.

"Can I have a toy car too?" Leah asks. "What? I want one too." Leah says with a hard frown after getting strange looks from Jacob and the cashier.

Leah does wind up getting her toy car and the group sits down to eat their food. Leah and Claire continue their conversation with Jacob sitting eyeing Leah suspiciously as he eats his food, especially his French fries. Eventually Leah makes a comment that has Jacob chuckling as he loosens up and places a kiss on her cheek. As Claire sits sipping her drink she can't help but notice how different Jacob and Leah's marriage is compared to everyone else's. The two fight and argue, sometimes yell, scream and curse each other out. They don't _always_ agree with one another but they always find some way to work it out and reach a compromise.

"You gonna eat that last fry?" Leah asks suddenly out the blue and Claire's eyes widen as she sees Leah eyeing Jacob's last fry.

"Goddamnit Lee." Jacob growls as he glares at her. "You _said_ you didn't want any fries."

"That's right, I didn't. I just want _a_ fry." Leah answers before sipping more of her iced tea.

Suddenly it hits Claire what the 'last' means. Claire always loves to the eat the last of anything that she has whether it's her bag of Doritos, starbursts, cheese popcorn or Leah's fry bread; the last bit is always the best part. Claire doesn't share her last with _anyone_ not her little brother or even Quil, not that he'd ask for her last. Claire looks up at Jacob expectantly wondering what he'll do and to her surprise he opens up a ketchup packet and drowns it. The last fry is huge and Claire finds her own mouthwatering thinking about the last salty treat.

"Here." Jacob says once he's done dressing the fry and slides it over to Leah.

"Thank you!" Leah chirps as she pops the last fry into her mouth.

"Sure, sure, I love you too." Jacob says with a small smile.

In that moment, Claire has learned how she'll find out if she is really _in love_ with someone and him with her if both are willing to give something up to other that no else is. The last of anything; Leah winks at Claire as she nods her head showing that she completely understands what Leah was referring to. Love isn't selfish or greedy but it doesn't always mean that life is perfect and everyone gets along great; it's about sharing and giving of yourself completely and willingly. Claire doesn't have that kind of love yet but some day she hopes to have a love more similar to that of Leah and Jacob than anyone else's.

* * *

A/N: So this idea hit me while I was telling a friend about my niece asking for the _last_ of my Swedish Fishes. I mean there were only 6 in the fun-size bag, which _isn't_ even a fun size bag. It's more like a cunt-teasing bag because there's nothing _fun_ or funny about them bags. I'm sure the candy makers are laughing their asses off at the profits their making but…I'm getting off topic. But I explained to my 3-yr old niece that you _never_ ask for someone's last _anything_. Which then got my sis and fiancé involved because then they wanted to play dumb like they ain't never heard of that.

The 'last' test is how you find out whether or not your significant other is serious about you and you about him/her. I've done the test plenty of times before and not many have succeeded. I mean I got their last but it was only after putting on the puppy dog eyes and letting that bottom lip quiver but damnit I'm not supposed to go that far. Give me that quiet moment where you mourn the loss of your 'last' but just know your answer will make or break us – damnit! LOL. But turns out quite a few people know about the rules of 'last' and I think my sis and her fiancé were just trying to make me feel guilty about not giving the 3-yr old something that she asked for because then it bought them more time to finish off the candy they were already working on.

But I've written this while watching Bambi with _all_ of my nieces and nephew so sorry for any grammatical errors or missing words. I'll come back and correct them all later. But I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Halloween and if you're old enough to do so – don't forget to vote! VOTE OR DIE BITCHES! O_o I always thought that a bit harsh but still get out their vote, it's your God given right and I had a friend of a friend of a friend of a distance 3rd cousin get attacked by police dogs so that we can have the right to vote…so…yea, don't waste that! Oh…and no, my family isn't known for joining political rallies because…well crazy shit sometimes happens and we don't want to be around when it hits the fan. ^_^ But I still vote! And now I've done my part as a responsible American citizen. *dusts off hands* And now it's time to get back into Fable 3. VIVA LA REVOLUCION!


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